Quotes of the day

posted at 10:01 pm on April 29, 2014 by Allahpundit

Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has been banned for life by the NBA in response to racist comments the league says he made in a recorded conversation.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said he will try to force the controversial owner to sell his franchise. Sterling also was fined $2.5 million, and Silver made no effort to hide his outrage over the comments…

Silver said Sterling acknowledged he was the man on the tape.

Sterling is immediately barred from attending NBA games or practices, being present at any Clippers office or facility, or participating in any business or player personnel decisions involving the team. He also cannot participate in any league business going forward.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to back the NBA’s decision to ban Clippers owner Donald Sterling from games and practices for life, condemning racist remarks attributed to Sterling and demanding a personal apology to Magic Johnson and all Angelenos.

Also, a reminder: Donald Sterling bought the Clippers for $12.5 million. The team is now worth at least $575 million; some think it’s worth more than $1 billion. We have a feeling he’ll come out of this just fine.

***

Coming into the press conference, legal experts even disagreed on whether Silver had the power to ask the board of governors (which consists of the league’s 30 owners) to vote on kicking an owner out of the league.

Combine all of that with the fact that Sterling is a notoriously litigious man, and Silver had plenty of excuses to be apprehensive in the severity of his punishment.

But Silver didn’t take a half-measure; he burned Sterling to the ground.

He risked embarrassment (if he doesn’t get the three-fourths majority of owners he needs to oust Sterling), litigation (if Sterling sues him), and precedent (there is now a roadmap for ousting owners for their statements and beliefs).

***

Imagine a world where public opinion takes a sharp turn against say, fracking. The last thing Aubrey McClendon wants is a throng of pitchfork-wielding environmentalist protesters camping out in front of Chesapeake Arena, home to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Or if an objection to gay marriage is suddenly viewed by the vast majority of individuals as solely an expression of homophobic bigotry. Do you think the Orlando Magic owner Rich DeVos wants fans of the team having to decide whether buying tickets is a form of validating his statements that gays “keep asking for favors,” and that marriage is “not vital to them, in my opinion?”

This is why Silver’s actions today were surprising. He has established as precedent the idea that words and actions that have nothing to do with what occurs on the court could result in the loss of a billion dollar asset.

***

[Y]es, of course, if an owner of a business makes baldly racist remarks urging public dissociation from an entire racial group, private sector sanctions – from the NBA or fans or sponsors – are “permissible.” They are always permissible in a free country. That’s why Brendan Eich is out of a job. The second question is whether what is permissible is proper or justified, and that will always depend on the specific case. I think it’s obviously appropriate in the Sterling case – because the remarks are horrifyingly racist. If Brendan Eich had made comments telling his friends to keep away from faggots, if he’d used any such terminology or had ever been shown to have discriminated against gays in the workplace or in his daily interactions, then his case would be very similar. But no such comments are in the public or private record, and there’s zero evidence that he ever acted in the workplace to harm gay employees. Au contraire, which is why gay Mozilla employees were divided about his ouster, with some supporting him. Sterling’s remarks, in contrast, reveal him to be a crude, foul bigot – which is why there is no division at all among African-Americans in the league – or beyond the league – about his fate…

Now I have long argued that civil unions are no substitute for civil marriage – but am I prepared to say that everyone who disagrees with me is motivated by the kind of rank bigotry that Sterling represents? Of course not. That was the position of the Human Rights Campaign for many years, after all. They may be tools, opportunists, resource-hoggers and credit-grabbers, but they’re not bigots. It was the middle ground favored by at least a third of Americans at one point. They weren’t and aren’t all bigots of the Sterling variety. And I think the term “bigot” should be reserved for those like Sterling who have demonstrated it without a shadow of a doubt.

***

But as league observers parse out blame for the first public relations crisis of Silver’s tenure, another group deserves some: NBA players. Although the recording is potentially the first inconvertible audio proof that Sterling is a dunderhead racist, many players were aware of his wrongheaded views.

Yet there wasn’t much uproar following Sterling’s sworn testimony in a 2002 housing discrimination case, during which the NBA’s longest-tenured owner said African Americans “smell and aren’t clean.” Throughout the years, high-profile players refused to challenge owners on their lack of action against Sterling, unwilling to risk their celebrity status and multimillion-dollar endorsement deals.

Sterling has long been the kind of guy the NAACP should be protesting, not giving two lifetime achievement awards to, for God’s sake…

I get it, I get why: Because, of course, Sterling had compromised himself on numerous occasions, which of course then gives the NAACP a way to wheedle money out of him for itself and for causes it approves of, and Sterling is himself interested in buying some latitude from the NAACP.

So both parties enter a mutually beneficial transaction: The NAACP gets money, which it needs, and Sterling gets a pass, and maybe even two Lifetime Achievement awards, which he needs.

White-supremacy culture is created, maintained and run by rich white men, Sterling’s peers. He is the longest-tenured owner in the NBA. Former commissioner David Stern had multiple opportunities to run Sterling out of the league for his bigoted actions. Sterling’s peers have always protected him … until he had the audacity and stupidity to be caught on tape explaining the culture they maintain.

It’s comical to watch the well-intentioned mob circle around Sterling as if his unintended transparency says nothing about his peer group. It’s equally comical seeing this issue framed as a “black issue,” with black people running to suggest ways to clean up Sterling’s mess…

Well-intentioned white people should be holding nationally televised panel discussions focusing on ways to lessen the damaging impact of white-supremacy culture. Well-intentioned white people who work within or support the NBA should be demanding that the NBA power structure cede some of its governing power to men and women who look like the overwhelming majority of the league’s players.

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you can never have enough bubbles stashed away,..
we can go to Canada from here and bring back a case per person
from the wine shops ..
they have a better export deal with both the French (bubbles)
and the Portuguese (porto) and even the irish for the single malts sometimes..

we can go to Canada from here and bring back a case per person
from the wine shops ..
they have a better export deal with both the French (bubbles)
and the Portuguese (porto) and even the irish for the single malts sometimes..

the cocoa deal has me concerned.. you cant bottle chocolate

going2mars on April 30, 2014 at 5:36 AM

I have a friend in England. They used to drive to France to get wine. Where they lived it was actually faster than going to London.

Political correctness (PC) operates in much the same fashion. It is in place to ensure conformity to the prescribed expressions and lifestyles dictated by the elites.

There are rewards of acceptance and praise for members of the “in crowd” as they attempt to silence or destroy any who dare think for themselves or express opposing views. Similarly, the purveyors of PC seize upon a word or phrase, which they emphasize in an attempt to divert attention away from the actual issue that doesn’t fit their narrative.

Not saying what this Sterling creature said is acceptable, but where does it stop? The PC mob is determined to take down and destroy any and all that do not conform to their ideals. First they came for Paula Deen because she said something racist years ago, then they came for Sterling because he said something racist (after many other examples of racism from him)…

The world has turned upside down, please stop the ride so I can get off.

it blew thru at 10sh up here..
im with you on the sunrise..
don’t believe in clocks..
Im off to fall down before the sun comes up
so im going to duck out and leave you with
some northern lights.. have a great day col..

What, exactly, did he say that was unacceptable? That he didn’t want his concubine showing up at the games with her black boyfriends? Or was there something more insidious.

I’m just asking. I really don’t know.

Cleombrotus on April 30, 2014 at 6:15 AM

I have a tendency to boil things down to basics. Free speech means free speech for everyone. Whether it’s Democrats going after Republicans or Republicans going after Democrats it’s wrong. We have to stop putting up with it. Stand up to the bullies.

What, exactly, did he say that was unacceptable? That he didn’t want his concubine showing up at the games with her black boyfriends? Or was there something more insidious.

I’m just asking. I really don’t know.

Cleombrotus on April 30, 2014 at 6:15 AM

Nothing more insidious that I can find although he does have a history. My point was more that this PC nonsense is just that, nonsense. It is ridiculous that whites are called racist when you see the same treatment from blacks to whites but yet that is acceptable. Judge a person by who they are rather than the color of their skin.

Can anyone even come up with an actual commonplace instance of white people saying they are superior to black people? I mean, if its a culture, there should be ample evidence in print, on television, in musical lyrics, right?

Sure, I can! According to Holder, the voting rights of blacks are being suppressed all the time! /s. so, there is that.
You make some very valid points in your comment. Well done.

My take is that yesterdays activities were designed to placate the angry black players threatening a work stoppage without draconian action. I stop short of calling it a threatened race riot but just short of that point. Bottom line- the blacks were going to hold the NBA hostage in the middle of the playoffs. That’s bad for business and the NBA is a business.

Sterling still has some legal cards to play and I suspect that when all is done a lifetime ban isn’t as long as it sounds and the threatened forced sale may disappear as well. And the filthy gold digger that Sterling was talking to….. well she’s sorry that Sterling got banned.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Tuesday ordered the DoD to review its policies concerning hairstyles popular with black women, telling critics of new Army regulations banning large cornrows, twists and dreadlocks that he takes “very seriously” concerns that military rules on hair have unfairly targeted black women.

This on the heels of the Army banning “toe shoes” because they looked funny.

I’m beginning to question whether he even deserves any “punishment”. So he doesn’t want his concubine showing up at the game with any of her boyfriends is now a punishable offense simply because he identified their race? Did he say it would be acceptable for her to show up with WHITE boyfriends?

We used to have these two white girls from the suburbs show up at our inner city teen center on weekends simply because they had a thing for black guys, who made up about 60% of the teens that came there.

We couldn’t mention that fact without being punished? We’d have to say, “These two bimboes are just here for the guys”?

You may be right. meanwhile, Meta “Ron Artest” Worldpeace continues to play.

kingsjester on April 30, 2014 at 7:05 AM

Isn’t Metta World Peace the thug who keeps having physical altercations? Why hasn’t he been banned from Basketball for life? It isn’t like any team can do without him given the number of teams he has played for.

But of course there is, the fundamental change in America! Where would we be without the lightbringer who wants to change our ways of governance? Where would we be if we didn’t have an AG that was determined to help ‘his people’?

“Floyd Mayweather Jr., an avid sports gambler in Las Vegas, where he lives, added, “Once I get ownership in the Clippers I can no longer bet, so I have to stop that completely.”

Mayweather, whose $73.5 million in minimum purses for his two fights in 2013 made him the world’s highest-paid athlete, did not weigh in on the comments that Sterling made, but said his interactions with the Clippers owner were positive.

“Donald Sterling, he’s been getting a lot of negative press and my thing is this — I don’t have nothing negative to say about this guy,” Mayweather said. “He’s always treated me with the utmost respect. He has always invited me to games, always. Has always told me, ‘Floyd, I want you to sit right next to me and my wife.’ I don’t know about the [alleged] mistress. But I’m talking about him and the wife.”

Schaefer, who is close to Mayweather and has been promoting his fights since 2007, said Mayweather was indeed serious about his interest.

[+] EnlargeDavid Geffen
Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images
Entertainment mogul David Geffen also could be a candidate to buy the Clippers after an email to the Los Angeles Times in which he threw his hat into the ring.
“When he tells you guys he’s interested in buying the Clippers, he’s not just saying that for an interview,” Schaefer said. “He’s really serious about it and I’m sure he could rally the necessary people around him to support him in a bid like that.”

Mayweather is not the only boxing celebrity to show interest in buying the team.

Retired six-division titleholder Oscar De La Hoya, president of Golden Boy Promotions, also said Tuesday that he was interested in owning a piece of the Clippers…”

A skanky gold digger illegally records a conversation which she pushes in a certain direction. Sterling sounded pretty incoherent, possibly showing early signs of dementia. And for that he forfeits his property? The felon walks and the person with unpopular and offensive views is punished.

That’s justice in America today. Free speech was nice while we had it.

One other thing to remember. Before this dust-up Sterling was scheduled to recieve a lifetime achievement award from the LA NAACP. The other honoree at the same event made this comment in public years ago……..

White folks was [sic] in caves while we were building empires…. We taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and those Greek homos ever got around to it.

But of course Al Sharpton has his own show on MSDNC and nobody is calling for him to be banned for life.

Of course she is the fat stupid cow wasn’t going to miss the chance to weigh in on something involving racial outrage. The woman was not only denied the ability to buy Hermes scarves in Paris but a $40K handbag in Switzerland. Her life is just like Rosa Parks or something.

I think children and adults have been taught to turn the other cheek. Look at those businesses that teach their employees to just give up the money to robbers and fire theem if they fight back. There is more fighting back going on now but not enough against bullies.

Working Class Artist. I’ll see your quotations and raise you Patrick Henry.

“They tell us sir, that we are weak-unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when will we be stronger? Will it be the next week or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?

“Seven of the ten richest counties in the country voted for Barack Obama in 2012, many of them by huge margins. Six of the ten are in the Washington, D.C., metro area, which has benefited from government employment and payment regulations, from government contracting, and from consulting, lobbying, and lawyering for clients petitioning the government. The median income of Falls Church City, Va., is $121,250 dollars. In 2012, Falls Church City voted for Obama 70 percent to 30 percent.

Democrats represent eight of the ten richest congressional districts in the country. Democrat Carolyn Maloney represents the district with the highest per capita income of $75,479. Outgoing congressman Henry Waxman represents the district with the second-highest per capita income of $61,273. The only two Republicans on the list are Representative Leonard Lance, whose New Jersey district ranks seventh, and outgoing Representative Frank Wolf, whose Virginia district ranks tenth. The average per capita income of Democratic House districts is $1,000 more than Republican ones.

Congressional Democrats have a higher median net worth than congressional Republicans. House Democrats have a higher median net worth ($929,000) than House Republicans ($884,000), while the median net worth of Senate Republicans ($2.9 million) is higher than that of Senate Democrats ($1.7 million). But it is not like the Senate Democrats are hurting financially. They have lost some wealthy members in recent years (Herbert Kohl, John Kerry, Frank Lautenberg). Of the ten richest members of Congress, only three are Republicans…”

“Who runs the world? The liberal elite,” writes Matthew Continetti at National Review Online, in a piece titled, likely with a wink to Emmanuel Goldstein, “Oligarchy in the 21st Century:”

Working Class Artist. I’ll see your quotations and raise you Patrick Henry.

“They tell us sir, that we are weak-unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when will we be stronger? Will it be the next week or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?

Idiot wind, blowing like a circle around my skull
From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth
You’re an idiot, babe
It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe

This was a setup from the gitgo. The girl friend tapes all the interviews and gets a big payoff after the sale. An old white guy is called a racist and the talking heads determine that old and white people are more prone to be racists. Young white people don’t even think about racism because they have a different perspective. Everything we got belongs to someone else. This is the new influence Chicago style.